ShareThisIf you hadn't heard much about Jim Caldwell before January, it wouldn't be that surprising. He had spent the previous seven years as quarterbacks coach of the Indianapolis Colts, but most folks believe that Peyton Manning is his own coach and coordinator anyway.
Caldwell had been the head coach of an ACC school for eight years, but there he compiled a 26-63 record. It was at Wake Forest, which isn't known for its football prowess.
But when Tony Dungy told Colts officials that the day of his retirement was approaching, they set out to find the right man to replace the Super Bowl-winning coach when he decided to step away.
They settled on Caldwell, who took over the reins on Jan. 13.
In half a season under his stewardship, there is no losing record in Indy as there was at Wake: the Colts are on their near-annual early-season winning streak, and are 8-0 headed into Sunday's showdown with the Patriots.
A Wisconsin native who was a four-year starter at Iowa in the mid-1970s, Caldwell is "really a unique man," according to Dungy, who has had the benefit of working with and learning from some great coaches: Joe Paterno at Penn State, Bill McCartney at Colorado, and Dungy, among others.
"He's a very, very smart guy, very communicative, articulate, sharp," Dungy said during an NBC Sports Sunday Night Football conference call earlier this week. "He'll challenge his players mentally. But as a person, he's just as good as they get. He's a guy that I think the players have confidence in what he says; what he tells them is going to be the absolute truth, and I think those guys are always going to go to battle for him because of that."
Caldwell and Dungy began working side-by-side in Tampa Bay; Caldwell served as quarterbacks coach in 2001, Dungy's final season with the Buccaneers, and went to Indianapolis when Dungy was hired there.
He was fortunate enough to inherit Manning, now 1A (or 1B, depending who is answering the question) in the debate about this generation's greatest pro quarterback, Manning or Tom Brady.
All Manning has done is fill up the record book, and he is on pace to hold numerous NFL records by the time he's done playing.
As Mike Holmgren did in Seattle, Dungy had the chance to be part of choosing his successor, and before the 2008 season, it was announced that Caldwell would become head coach when Dungy retired. A year later, Dungy stepped down.
He was asked why Caldwell was considered the best candidate.
"I think all of us -- (Colts owner) Jim Irsay, (team president) Bill Polian, myself -- we all felt that was going to be the case," Dungy said. "Jim had the knowledge of the offense ... he had been a head coach before, run a program, and he was going to add his own tweaks to things but keep the general path the same, and I think that's what everyone in Indianapolis wanted -- not to hold things the same but make it a little bit better and keep going in the same direction, and they felt like he would be the best man to do that."
Caldwell measures his words and thinks things through, qualities he shares with Dungy. But Caldwell is more emotional and fiery, Dungy said.
When Caldwell first took over, Manning was supportive of Caldwell, saying the coach had been very influential on him.
But when asked to describe his head coach for those who may not know much about him, Manning was somewhat vague.
"People think I know coach Caldwell so well -- I mean, he's been my position coach -- but I think I'm kind of getting to know him like the rest of our team is, as a head coach," Manning said. "I think it takes time when you kind of learn something about the guy, just like he's probably learning about our different players.
"I think our team is responding to his coaching right now. As we progress through the season, I think we'll continue to learn more about him and he'll learn more about us. But he's a very hard-working coach, very disciplined, very detail-oriented. ... Like I said, I think it's still early in his coaching career and I think we're all still trying to get a feel for each other."
Manning may still be learning about Caldwell, but Dungy has seen enough nine weeks into the season to give him quite the compliment.
"You want to leave the next person with the chance to succeed; you don't want to leave the cupboard bare," Dungy said. "You want to continue to see it go. In fact, this is the best I've seen them play, other than '05 (when the Colts won the Super Bowl), this is the best I've seen them play. So I am happy about that and really happy for Jim."
(Contact Shalise Manza Young at smanza(at)projo.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit The Providence Journal
